


The World Is Cruel (But You Are Strong)

by supermaket_flowers



Series: Peter Parker's Slightly Normal (But Actually Really Ridiculous) Life [3]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Adoption, Avengers Tower, Car Accidents, Crying, Dead May Parker (Spider-Man), Easter Eggs, Family Loss, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Hospitals, Not Beta Read, Not Canon Compliant, OMFG that's a TAG??, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Peter Parker Lives in Avengers Tower, Peter Parker is Tony Stark's Biological Child, Prequel, Prequel to Ah Yes The Fieldtrip, Tony adopts Peter, Wordcount: 1.000-5.000, is that the right tag?, more sad than i already was, star trek easter eggs, this made me sad, uncomfortable chairs
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-17
Updated: 2021-03-18
Packaged: 2021-03-25 15:08:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,019
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30090996
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/supermaket_flowers/pseuds/supermaket_flowers
Summary: That day the accident happened was the anniversary of Ben’s death two years earlier, they had planned to go put flowers on Ben’s grave after May got off work, she had even picked up flowers on her way back.They never did, instead, Peter spent the day curled up in an uncomfortable plastic hospital chair, crying over the loss of his Uncle and Aunt.That was until a certain billionaire showed up.
Relationships: May Parker (Spider-Man) & Peter Parker, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Series: Peter Parker's Slightly Normal (But Actually Really Ridiculous) Life [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2198343
Comments: 2
Kudos: 60





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Left to me, a gift you are](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12849408) by [Webtrinsic](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Webtrinsic/pseuds/Webtrinsic). 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote this because I was feeling sad about the approaching anniversary of my grandma's death. There's a Star Trek: TNG easter egg in here, can you spot it?  
> This is also the 1st time I've ever written anything with Tony in itso he's really OOC, Peter's not (I don't think?)  
> Major Character Death is May.

Peter had been working on some Chem homework sheets when he got The Call. May had texted him just ten minutes before telling him that she’d be home in less than twenty minutes. When he had picked up the call, the lady on the other end told him she was calling from the hospital a few blocks over and that he had to come in, Peter had almost dropped his phone.

Chemistry homework now abandoned on his desk, he flew out of the apartment, only stopping momentarily to put on shoes. The next thing he knew, he was sitting in a taxi heading toward the hospital.

When he stepped through the doors, a middle-aged lady in teal scrubs approached him.

“Mr Parker?” she asked.

“Y-yeah,” he confirmed.

The lady smiled sadly.

“I’m Doctor Beverly Crusher, this way please,” Doctor Crusher led him into a room where May lay in a hospital bed.

Peter had stopped in the doorway, shocked into a momentary stop at the sight of his Aunt lying in the bed.

“She’s alive but fading fast,” she told him softly. “I’ll be down the hall at the nurses' station, you can find me there,” she told him before leaving them alone in the room.

Peter could hear her heart beating still, so he already knew that but Doctor Howell didn’t know about his powers.

“Hi, May,” Peter said as he approached her bed.

May didn’t say anything but she did turn her head to watch him approach.

The right words escaped him so Peter took a seat in the uncomfortable-looking blue plastic chair by her bed.

“I’m so sorry,” May told him, softly. “We were...supposed to go put...flowers on Ben’s gave,” she apologized.

“Please, don’t apologize, it’s not your fault,” he told her.

May smiled, little did she know it would be her last but Peter did. They both knew that her time was up very soon.

“You’re so _strong_ , Peter. I couldn’t have been more proud to be your Aunt,” May told him before her eyes slipped closed for the last time and the heart monitor started one long continuous tone.

It was then that the tears that had started sliding down his cheeks since May had apologized became full-on sobs and he curled up in the uncomfortable chair.

He lost track of time as he sat there but Doctor Crusher returned, most likely notified of May’s passing from the equipment.

“What’s your name?” she asked as she crouched down to be level with him.

Peter has no idea how he managed to tell her his name through his tears but he does and she tells him that she’ll give him time before she leaves.

Through his tears, he could hear Doctor Crusher and a man talking down the hall. They were talking about him.

“She was his last living relative, he has no other family,” the man told Howell.

“Is there anyone listed as an emergency guardian or another emergency contact?” Crusher asked.

“There’s someone listed as his emergency guardian but Bev, you wouldn’t believe who it is,” the man answered.

“Who?” she asked.

“Tony Stark,” the man told her.

Tony’s listed as his emergency guardian? 

“No _way_. We still have to follow protocol,” Doctor Crusher told him as their conversation fades off and the sound of a phone ringing is heard.

After that, he isn’t really paying attention to what’s going on around him. That is until someone is touching his knee and speaking to him.

Peter looked up to see that it was Tony who was speaking to him. When did he get here?

“Mr Stark?” Why he asked when the man was in front of him, he’ll never know.

“Hey kid,” Tony said.

“May, she’s...” he looked to where she lay still on the bed. Peter couldn’t bring himself to say ‘dead’.

“I know, that redhead doctor told me,” Tony said.

“What’s going to happen to me?” Peter had mostly run out of tears by now.

“You can come live with me and the others at the Tower, if you want or-” he didn’t get to finish his sentence, Peter had already made his choice.

“Can I?”

“I offered, kid, of course you can,” As he is speaking, Peter uncurled from the position he had taken when May had died.

“Do you want to leave? that chair must not be very comfortable especially if you’ve been sitting there for three hours like the doctor said you have,” Tony asked.

It had been three hours?

Peter nodded and stood up.

Tony led him from the room and out of the hospital. A crowd of sorts had started to form and then follow them but when the two got into the car, it thankfully dispersed.

“Is there anything, in particular, you want to bring to the Tower right now? We can get the rest later,” Tony asked as he pulled the car out of the parking space and then out of the parking lot.

“Yeah,” Peter told him before he curled up once again, in the passenger’s side seat.

Before he realized where they were going, the car had been parked outside his apartment building.

“Do you want me to come up with you?” Tony asked.

“Or do you want to go yourself?”

“Could you come with?” Peter asked.

The two got out of the car, entered the building and ascended the stairs to Peter’s apartment.

After jamming his key in the door and shoving it open, Peter stepped inside.

The last time he had been here had been over three hours ago and he had been trying to get his homework finished before they headed to the cemetery, oblivious to the motor accident that was happening as he was working on chemical equations.

Shoving the self-guilt to the back of his mind for now, Peter headed into his room to grab his SI ID badge and backpack which he stuffed his Spidey suit, laptop, a few pieces of clothing and a few other odds and ends into before returning to the living room/kitchen.

“Got everything?”

Peter nodded.

“Okay, let’s go,” They returned to the car and Tony pulled out of the street-side parking spot and set off in the direction of the Tower.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is in 2 parts, next is Peter moving/settling into the Tower.  
> You don't have to leave kudos but please leave a comment.  
> I have a question: what is your favorite MCU ship? (mine's Clintasha).


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I lied, this is gonna be 3 chapters now because I'm unorganized as hell.

While the lift carried them upwards, Peter realizes that he doesn’t know _where_ in the tower he is staying, most likely one of the guest rooms.

“-It’s pretty bare at the moment but we can get more stuff later,” It’s only then that he realized that Tony had been speaking.

“What’s bare?” he asked not before mentally kicking himself for not paying attention.

“Your room?”

What?

“My room?”

“Yeah, you’ve been here much more lately and well, I wanted you to have somewhere to stay if something ever happened to May,” Tony explained as the lift arrived at the penthouse floor.

“Okay?” He didn’t really know what to say to that.

There was a lot of realization done that day. The next was Tony realized that Peter had somehow not yet properly met Pepper.

“Hi, Peter,” the redhead greeted, looking up from where she was cutting beetroot in the kitchen as the two passed but stopped when she had spoken.

“Hi, Ms Potts,” he answered.

“None of that ‘Ms Potts’, call me Pepper, please,” Pepper requested as she put the chopped beetroot into a bag.

“Okay,” Peter agreed.

“Good, now you should go see your room,” she told him.

“Come on,” Tony told him before they disappeared down the hallway.

They stopped at a door a good ways down the hall, it was opened to the room inside. As it was open, Peter stepped inside.

The room is painted in a rather plain white and has a double bed, desk and chair, an in-built closet that spans the length of one wall and a TV. What surprises him the most are the Star Wars posters stuck on one of the walls, they are identical to the ones he had up on the wall in his room in his and May’s apartment.

He’s so surprised that words fail him for a moment. He looks back at Tony who is stood by the doorframe in a way that says _this is for me?_

“I wasn’t sure what else to include so as I said earlier, we can get more stuff - and paint - tomorrow or later,” Tony told him.

“Could - could we get the paint tomorrow? The white is too bright,” Peter asked.

“Sure, kid,”

By then, it had gotten pretty late. It had been just past six when Peter had gotten the call from the hospital and had been almost four hours since then so it was nearing ten o’clock by now.

Add a very emotional day to that and you get one very tired spiderling. Peter had been yawning for almost the entire time he had been looking around his new room.

“You should probably be going to bed soon,” Tony suggested.

“So should you,” Peter answered as he put his bag on the desk.

“Listen to the fifteen-year-old, Tony,” Pepper called from down the hall. 

That makes Peter laugh.

“I’ll go to bed, just want to finish this homework,” Peter told him.

“What is it with you and doing homework?” Tony asked before he leaves from where he had been standing in the doorway, pulling the door shut behind him.

Peter does indeed go to bed not long after that, too exhausted to do much more of his homework.

* * *

When he woke the next day, it took a moment for him to realize where he was.

Blinking them away, he got up and got ready. It wasn’t long before he left his room and was heading down the hallway.

“Morning,” Pepper said, she was putting the beetroot she had sliced up yesterday into a sandwich. “Tony should be down in his lab, if you were wondering,” she added as she finished putting the sandwich together.

“Oh, thanks,” he thanked.

Before either of them had a chance to say anything, the lift opened and Tony strolled out, wiping his hands on an oil-stained towel.

“Hey, Pete. You don’t have to go to school today if you don’t feel like going,” Tony told him.

“Really?”

“If you don’t feel like it then yeah,” he answered.

“Oh okay, I don’t think I’ll go today,” Peter decided.

“That’s fine,” Pepper told him. “But I have a board meeting to get to, I’ll see you two tonight,” she announced before she left for the lift and the doors shut behind her.

“Don’t know about you but I’m going to have breakfast,” Tony said.

* * *

After they had finished their breakfasts, Peter returned his bag to his room.

“Could we get the paint?” he asked when he had returned to the main area.

“Sure, do you want to face the crowd or get it online?”

“Can we get it online,” Peter asked. “There’s usually more colors online anyway,” he added.

“There usually is,” Tony agreed.

A few minutes later, Peter was sitting at the kitchen island, his battered laptop on the tabletop in front of him, scrolling through the pages of paint colors. Tony behind him, looking over his shoulder.

“You are _not_ painting it _red and blue,_ ” Tony decided.

“Why? It works on my suit,” Peter asked.

“Exactly, it barely works on your _suit_ , not on _walls_ ,” Tony answered.

“But you designed the Spidey suit?” Peter stated, a little confused.

“You choose the colors,” he returned.

“Good point,” Peter admitted defeat. “Fine, just blue then,”

“There are a hundred variations of blue, you have to be more specific,” Tony told him.

“Deep blue? Like my suit?” Peter asked. “This one?” he clicked on a certain color of paint.

“If you want to,”

Peter added the blue paint to the cart, which already had a rug, a beanbag chair and a lamp in it.

“I think that’s everything,” Peter decided.

“You sure?” Tony asked as Peter scrolled through the cart.

“Yeah,”

“Okay,” Tony agreed as Peter clicked through to the checkout page.

Within a couple of hours later, the stuff they had bought arrived.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll edit this sometime later when I'm not as tired and when I have more time. It's a little rushed in parts because of that.


End file.
